Freetrader captain

There are some truly dishonest and disreputable people in space, who would rob you blind and push you out of an airlock sooner than they would give you the time of day. Captain E-Llane O'Connor is not one of them, or so she claims. She is the captain of a short-haul freetrader named Freebird, and although sometimes she bends a few laws (and if the price is right damn right fractures them) most maintain that she and her small crew of spacefarers are about as honest as you are going to find this side of the Orion Nebula.

This mini is by Reaper, as part of their Chronoscope range. She is a technician, carrying a whopping monkey wrench, with the option of an assault rifle. I thought the rifle looked unbalanced, and I already have a mechanic, so I added a retro-scifi gun from Heresy.

Grand Opening of Deadhorse Bank

Here's a bit more scenery for Deadhorse, my fictional western town for my Legends of the Old West campaign. Leon and I are going to get stuck in to a few more games in a couple of weeks, and so I have been furiously painting to try to move things along a little, as far as scenery goes. I think I will soon have enough pieces to represent Deadhorse high street.

This is, obviously, Deadhorse Bank. It's a larger, two story structure. Note the little shack on the back. That is where the bank clerk is supposed to sleep, so that the bank's safe is never left unattended. This precaution is supposed to reassure the good citizens of Deadhose that their money is safe in the bank. Unfortunately the bank has been robbed so any times the manager, Mister Reynolds, is having problems recruiting a clerk willing to sleep over in the shack.

This model is the resin frontage of the sadly now defunct Snapdragon Studios western building. the rest is scratch built with card, foam card and balsa wood.

Toxic Shock!

Firstly, let me say a hearty welcome to my new followers, Dr Willit and Dr Phobos- Nice to have learned me take an interest in my humble blog (I am assuming they are real doctors, and not mealy masquerading under an assumed name to hoodwink unwary bloggers!)

I have been jolly busy of late, but much of the things I have been working on are not directly related to superheroes and villains. My new found love of 1938: VBCW, and cowboys, has to an extent overshadowed my painting for my Supers campaign. It has been suggested that I abandon the pretence that this is a Super-related blog, and just accept that it's gone of on a rather peculiar tangent, but I intend to stick to the core content of 28mm Super-stuff, with occasional forays off into the realms of other genres of the hobby. To that end, I have a new offering for you, and one that is most defiantly four colour.

Toxic Shock is a feared deranged killer, but it was not always so: his alter ego, Dr Simon Montegrew, was once a well respected bio-engineer and microbiologist, who's works into toxicity pushed the boundaries of medicine forward. Then Dr Montegrew was kidnapped by goons working for the evil Doctor Otto, and forced to assist the wicked genius in his attempts to develop a super-serum. Team Metro attempt to effect a rescue, attacking Doctor Otto's secret laboratory. During the battle, the unfortunate Dr Montegrew was knocked back into a shelf of samples of the Super-serum, and was transformed into Toxic Shock.

Since that time Toxic Shock has plagued the citizens of London, carrying out seemingly random acts of violence and terror. As the toxins in his own body have ravished his flesh Toxic Shock has been forced to replace his own organs with cybernetics: Now he is more machine than man.

His mind too is shattered, poisoned by all he has endured. Little or nothing of the good doctor now remains- only unremitting pain and rage.

This mini is another Pulp City mini, this one being based on Nuke, a radioactive villain. I changed the head for a left over one I had from West Winds Weird World War Two range, just to make him look a bit different. I opted for a yellow and icky green colour scheme to suggests the bio-hazardous material locked into his body. I am not a huge fan of painting yellow, but I gave it a go and am reasonably happy with the results.

Second VBCW Game- Kingswinford Cross

Last Friday we had our second game of 1938: A Very British Civil War; And by 'we' I mean Ash, Scott, Tom, Antony and Neil down at the Stourbridge Wargamers Club. Ash kindly organised and refereed the game, and we used a set of rules called "And Was Jerusalem Builded Here" (Available free at the font of all VBCW knowledge, Gentleman's Wargames Parlor). Ash had to write some house rules as the rules are a little sketchy in parts, but hey- its free!

The game followed on from the last game, which had proven rather indecisive. The general plot follows the attempts by the Royalist forces to take over the Stourbridge steel works. The Royalists, made up of British Union of Fascists (BUF) from Wolverhampton and Royalist regular army from the 'Army of the Severn Valley', had already driven the Leftist forces out of the village of Womborne in the last game. The Leftists, made up on an uneasy coalition of Socialist, Communist and Salvation Army Militia, had fallen back to the tactically important village of Kingswinford, where they made their stand. The Royalist needed to capture the cross roads in the center of the village so they could freely move their forces in to attack the steel works.

The Leftist forces make a stand in the village of Kingswinford. They take up firing positions in the houses overlooking the crossroads, and barricade the main roads. Forces from the Communist party are held in reserve.

The BUF and the Army advance through the fields towards Kingwinford. Air attacks by the Leftist's small air force take it's toll, and destroys the BUF heavy machine gun section. Undeterred the fascists press on.

More reserves from the Stourbirdge Socialist Militia arrive and take up position to repel the BUF on the left flank.

The Royalist army is delayed as they try to negotiate the high fences. One unfortunate section disturb a bee hive, and the Lewis gunner's number 2 accidentally drops his ammunition. Chance cards add random elements into the battle, which can be quite a good laugh, or just ruddy annoying.


Having crossed the fence, the army advance in tight formation along the right flank towards the Salvation Army position. Fierce house to house fighting is expected, but the regular army's moral is high.


The Salvation Army Militia hold the fields on the Right flank of the village. They are bolstered by their fearsome armoured car, which had become bogged down in the muddy ground, but still armed with two medium machine guns.


Accurate artillery fire from the Royalist big guns took a heavy toll on the Stourbridge Socialist Militia, forcing a section to withdraw. Later they were devastated by a strafing run from the BUF's own air wing. The left flank began to faulter, but Socialist in the houses close to the cross roads held the BUF advance up with a hail of accurate rifle fire. A fierce gun battle erupted between the fascists and the remaining socialist.


Leftist forces are horrified to see the arrival of two armoured cars from the Army of the Severn Vally. They were armed with Bren Guns and anti-tank rifles. The Leftist's lacked any anti-armour weaponry.


The brave men of the Stourbridge Socialist Militia abandon their position at the cross roads, having come under sustained fire from army artillery and armoured cars. They rushed out to make a last ditch attempt to repel their hated enemies, the BUF. After a brief but bloody gun battle the BUF are forced to withdraw, abandoning the whole left flank.

The guns of the Salvation Army armoured car break the moral of the regular army, forcing them to withdraw, before the armoured car is finally destroyed by the army vehicals. The Salvation Army are forced to abandon their position in the fields and retreat into Kingswinford, as they had nothing to counter the threat of the army's armoured cars. Reinforcements arrive from the Communist, and they retake the cross roads, but they also lack any anti-armour weaponry.

The battle ended in a stalemate, with the BUF and Regular infantry in full retreat, and but with their armoured cars commanding the road. The Leftists were still firmly embedded in Kingswinford, and would prove too difficulty to root out without infantry support.

Another great battle, and great fun all round. Ash ran a fair fight, as the results will show. The tweaks he made to the rules worked very well, as did the chance cards. I am looking forwards to the next battle, but I can assure you I will be bringing one or two anti-armour weapon! My snipers never appeared, which was a shame, as I think they would have made quite a difference in the built up environment. The lads down Stourbridge are a great bunch, and it was fantastic to see my minis on such a good looking board.

More Red Scousers

Reinforcements have arrived for my Very British Civil War force. The latest recruits to the Communist Party of Liverpool have turned up just in time for this weeks game of VBCW at the Stourbridge War Gamers Club.

Javier Caballero, or The Spaniard, as he is generally known, is a fanatical supporter of international communism. Fresh from the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War, he is a battle-hardend veteran and an experienced leader of men. Just what the Liverpudlian Communist Party need.

Also freshly arrived through the port of Liverpool is a consignment of Russian made rifles, including the much prized sniper rifles. The Russian advisers are currently training the Liverpudlians how to use them, and it is hoped that in the built-up urban battlefields of Liverpool the Sniper Section will take their toll on the Fascists and Royalist forces.

Here's a motley collection of new recruits, sporting a mix of Russian made Mosim-Nagant rifles and British Lee Enfields. One or two also sport the colours of their local football teams too, in flagrant disregard for the Communist Party Regulations.

These figures are a mix of Partizan's by Black Tree Design and French Resistance Fighters by West Wind Games. The snipers are by Black Tree, and the Spaniard is by Artizan Designs. They bring the communist force up to 44, and so I think I will have to concentrate on the royalists for a bit to bring them up to strength.

This week I went to Stourbridge for another game of VBCW. I will post some pics soon, and let you know how I got on.

Maxwell Slayer

Few Assassins have ever reached the level of skill and professionalism of the killer known as Maxwell Slayer. Although he has no superpowers, Slayer has made his name killing Superhumans. He does this through meticulous study of his targets, and can spend months planning a mission, analysing his victims weaknesses, and acquiring exactly the right weapons for the job. Slayer has spent his life perfecting his techniques and his mastery of weaponry and unarmed martial arts is almost unsurpassed, as is the amount of thought and planning he puts into each and every mission. If Maxwell Slayer accepts a contract on someone's head, then they are as good as dead.


This mini is 'The Gentleman" from Pulp City. I painted him up to look a bit like David Beckham (if Beckham was a world class assassin, and not a footballer/male model) because I wanted him to look slick and professional. I like the sculpting on the face of this mini, but its a bit pricey for what is essentially a guy with a couple of pistols. But still, Leon gave me this one, so I can't really complain. Lets have more spandex clad supers please!

CLiNT Magazine #1

I have just, almost by accident, picked up issue 1 of a new magazine here in the UK called CLiNT, a comic aimed at an adult (or big kid at least) audience. I am sure it wont come as news to the fan boys out there, but somehow it slipped past my radar until now . Created and edited by Mark Millar, who penned Wanted, Kickass and The Ultimates, it features comics by a number of top writers and artist; chief amongst them is Millar's own creation- Kickass 2.

Millar, in his editorial, says "Grandpa had Eagle, Dad had 2000AD, and now you have got CLiNT, you lucky people". And I think we are very lucky. Production quality is very high, and the magazine includes work by Millar himself, as I have already stated, as well as writing by noted celebrity comic fan Johnathan Ross, and comedian Frankie Boyle, plus interviews and competitions etc.

The price is £3.99 for issue 1, which is a bit steep if you ask me; I can buy a graphic novel of £15 or borrow one from the local library for free. That said, I will probably buy issue #2, and maybe even#3, just to see if I get into it. I think it is good to give new things a fair crack of the whip.

It's been a long time since we had a new comic magazine. 2000AD went off the boil a long time ago, if you ask me. I am looking forward to settling down with my brew and reading Kickass 2

Nightmaster Returns!

The Nightmaster, dark avenging vigilante hero, has returned. Many believed he was killed by the villain Doctor Apocalypse, but there have been numerous reported sightings of this mysterious, and fearsome, superhero. Police sources have confirmed that a hero matching the description of the Nightmaster was involved in the capture of notorious supervillain Strongarm. As yet no one has been able to ascertain whether this is the original Nightmaster, or someone else taking on the mantle of responsibility in his name.

This mini is a bit of a conversion. The body belongs to a vampire made by Heresy. It comes with three different head options. The heads made it into my Bitz box, because I didn't like any of them. This head is off a Heroclix mini; Black Cat, I think. I recon it works rather well.

I envisage Nightmaster as a powerful reoccurring NPC hero in my RPG campaign. I think every city needs a character like Nightmaster- someone who terrifies all but the most insane criminals. Cowardly and superstitious lot!

Link to a Great Battle Report

Just a quick heads up to 'The Baron's Blog', who had a cracking Golden Age Super Battle, and reported it in his blog here. I love the Barons blog, and the very wacky battle reports. Why not check it out?

Keep up the Good work Baron!